When we talk about the future of work, we often look at the number of jobs likely to be created in aggregate, with special attention paid to entry level jobs for recent college graduates. The pipeline of labor and the strength of our economy are dependent on people believing that education has a great return on investment and that the investment increases the economic mobility of each generation—parents encourage their kids to go to college because they want them to do as well or better than they have.

And there’s plenty of evidence to support that belief: the economic trajectory of people with a postsecondary degree is far more secure than those who were not able to pursue education after high school:

Median earnings for bachelor’s degree recipients working full time is $21,000- $56,000 more than the median earnings for high school graduates

Over 10 percent of high school graduates age 25 and older live in a household that relies on SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) benefits, compared to 2 percent for those with at least a bachelor’s degree

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, only 10 percent of children born in the lowest quintile of the income distribution who get a four-year college degree remain in that quintile as adults, compared to 47 percent of those without a four-year degree

But in much of the South, too few jobs require a postsecondary education and allow for economic security. Arkansas, for example, added 40,000 jobs between 2010 and 2013 and the state is forecast to add 546,000 jobs by the end of 2023. Nearly 70 percent of current jobs are low-skill and only 30 percent of jobs require a postsecondary credential for entry-level employment. Low-skill jobs are also conflated with lower wages, producing a workforce that is unable to move up the economic ladder and generate significant economic growth through their consumption, investment, and tax dollars. In Arkansas, 87 percent of jobs that pay less than a family-sustaining wage are those that don’t require education beyond high school. Moreover, in 2013, 65 percent of the jobs in the state did not meet that yearly threshold of a family sustaining wage.

Arkansas is not alone in this issue. The low-wage, low skill economy is an issue throughout the South. MDC called attention to the lack of well-paying jobs across the region in the State of the South report, and we are currently preparing a study of economic mobility in North Carolina that raises similar concerns about the low-wage jobs in our home state. And as you can see from the maps below, the states with the most jobs for high school dropouts are in the South while the opportunities for growth for those with bachelor’s degrees are in the North and the Midwest.

Educational concentrations of total jobs by state in 2018

Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Educational Requirements through 2018 (June 2010)

Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Educational Requirements through 2018 (June 2010)

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, understands that career opportunities that pay family sustaining wages are important for the Arkansas economy, and that students need to realize the return on investment of postsecondary education within their home state. The Foundation wants students, parents, policymakers, educators, and employers to EXPECT MORE. The EXPECT MORE campaign asks people in the state to change the status quo by investing in the right advanced-skills training and education, investing in every region of the state to attract family-supporting jobs, and redesigning career pathways that offer family-supporting wages. The goal is to reverse the 70-30 equation (of jobs that require no postsecondary education for entry-level employment compared to those that do) through a series of strategies to transform the Arkansas public education system and build a pipeline of family-supporting jobs across the state.

Walking along the wide, tree-lined Main Street of downtown Greenville, S.C., it is hard to imagine that just 40 years ago the same path was deserted. Dozens of locally owned restaurants, luxury condos and hotels, and bustling shops belie the city’s history. The city is now a hub of advanced manufacturing, engineering, information technology, and other high-growth industries.

Like many other former mill towns across the South, Greenville’s economy centered on textile manufacturing for much of the 20th century. But unlike many others, Greenville successfully diversified its economy before globalization and technological innovation sent many jobs overseas. In the early 1970s, Michelin invested in the Upstate region, followed by several other automotive manufacturers, and by the mid-1990s, BMW had established a major auto assembly plant in the area. But despite Greenville’s strong economy and national recognition, not all of the city’s residents have benefitted from its prosperity. “A young person’s economic prospects should not be determined by his or her zip code,” says John Concklin, program investment manager at United Way of Greenville County. “Unfortunately, in the area known as the ‘White Horse Corridor,’ prospects for a successful future are tough—32 percent of households live in poverty; 66 percent have only a high school diploma or less; unemployment is greater than 25 percent in some sections; and the city’s lowest performing high schools are found here.” In many of these neighborhoods, students lack the work experiences and information they need to make decisions about how to prepare and compete for family-sustaining jobs. For some students, particularly those living in neighborhoods with high unemployment, there is mistrust of manufacturing jobs, since their parents were laid off when textile jobs were outsourced.

While some young people are skeptical of the labor market, some employers are skeptical of the labor force. In 2007, a study found that two-thirds of Greenville-area companies could not find enough qualified entry-level workers, skilled-production workers, as well as engineering and IT professionals. To solve this problem in the short term, many businesses are relying on young transplants, who are attracted by the density of well-paying jobs and a vibrant downtown. But civic leaders know that talent recruitment isn’t a viable long-term solution for businesses or the community, though that is sometimes a hard case to make. Traci Wickett, president and CEO of the United Way of Southern Cameron County in Brownsville, TX, believes that helping employers understand the potential in the local labor force is always worth the effort. She explains here:

Like Wickett’s efforts in Brownsville, organizations in Greenville are taking the lead on infusing work exposure and experience that is beneficial for both young people and employers. In 2012, the Chamber of Commerce created an Education & Workforce Committee to facilitate integration between business and the school system. By 2014, the Chamber was a part of the schools’ strategic planning process and participated in the search process for the current superintendent. The Chamber’s approach to educational involvement is wide-ranging, supporting efforts from early childhood to higher education. The Greenville business community has been supportive of the development of a successful STEM elementary school as well as a STEAM middle school. To complete the K-12 educational preparation for these types of careers, the Chamber has been very supportive of the NEXT High School, slated to open in the fall of 2016. Integral to all of these educational efforts are strong business involvement and project-based learning. The Chamber is committed to providing business linkages that give students exposure and the skills needed to succeed in the area’s technical, high-growth industries. Hank Hyatt, vice president for economic development at the Greenville Chamber says “You can’t wait until high school to expose kids to career opportunities, so we are helping foster partnerships with middle schools to bring business leaders into seventh grade classrooms.” Hyatt acknowledges that providing the number of internships or other work experiences that Greenville students need is a challenge, but he affirmed the Chamber and the business community’s commitment to building a strong educational and work pipeline for students, particularly those who are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. As John Concklin says, “The key to our success hinges on engaging the right people, giving people the space to say what isn’t working, and developing coherent strategies. To solve these problems, we have to work together.”

This post is adapted from a profile written by Beth Caldwell. You can read the full profile and to learn more about Greenville is working to build an infrastructure of opportunity for young people here.

What’s one thing that all places in North Carolina have in common? From our booming metros to our small towns, from Roanoke Rapids to Cullowhee, income mobility for low-income young people in this state, and in the South in general, is far worse than in other U.S. regions. It’s surprising to learn that even in our most economically dynamic places like Charlotte and the Triangle, people who grow up in families at the low end of the income distribution are likely to stay there as adults, and only small numbers make it to the middle or top. According to data from the Equality of Opportunity Project, for young people born in the bottom quintile of the income distribution in the Triangle, 37 percent will stay there as adults, another 29 percent will only move up one quintile, and a mere 5 percent will make it to the highest quintile.

Over the past two decades, Durham has moved from a low-skilled, tobacco-reliant community to become the “City of Medicine” and a Southern center of culture and creativity. Its dynamic, knowledge-based economy is a magnet for the health, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and IT industries. Its universities and Research Triangle Park, both created and sustained through a history of public and private investment, are rich in employers and in the middle-skill jobs that pay living wages for new recruits, boasting an employment rate projected to outstrip the state and the U.S. by 2021. Yet, despite this thriving market, too few youth and young adults who grow up in Durham, particularly youth of color, are getting these good jobs, and too few have the academic and workplace skills to compete with more qualified candidates from other cities and states. Many struggle to find their way through a fragmented collection of institutions and organizations that are working to support young people but are not always well-resourced or working together. Much of this reflects Durham’s history as a tobacco and textile manufacturing center, where employment was not conditioned on education or credentialing, along with a legacy of race-based inequity in educational investment and expectations.

As David Dodson wrote in MDC’s State of the South report, “The result today is ‘two Durhams’—one prosperous and positioned to capitalize on abundant, emerging economic opportunities, and another increasingly disconnected and lacking the education, experience, and social connections needed to connect to prosperity that is close at hand geographically but painfully out of reach.” In that report, we proposed that places like Durham must build an infrastructure of opportunity, or a clear and deliberate set of pathways and supports that connect youth and young adults to postsecondary credentials and economic opportunity regardless of background. The infrastructure of opportunity is about more than just lifting up young people who are growing up in poverty—it’s about investing in opportunity for all young people so the community has a strong foundation for long-term success. The places that have better outcomes for low- and middle-income young people tend to have better outcomes for high-income young people, too (see Equality of Opportunity Project), indicating that the types of resources, systems, and investments that matter for the economic and educational success of young people are beneficial across the board.

A new partnership of private-sector, education, government, and civic leaders in Durham believes in that kind of investment. The goal of Made in Durham’s high-level, cross-sector leadership is to equip Durham youth with the credentials and experience required to gain entry-level, living wage employment in the sectors that are driving the local economy. Made in Durham seeks to support and enable an education-to-career system that addresses historic disparities. Central to its work is a deliberate strategy to advocate for the alignment of demand and supply—a strategy that will satisfy the needs of employers and young people. That requires engaging major employers as strategists, advocates, funders, and lead participants in creating career pathways and work-based learning opportunities while simultaneously investing deeply in youth engagement to give young people, especially those poorly served by existing systems, a strong voice in strategy-setting and design.

The work began in 2013 when the Made in Durham Task Force was convened to examine what it would take to ensure that young people succeed in the labor market and that employers benefit from more home-grown talent. In Durham, a health-care innovator and then CEO of the region’s largest employer, Duke University Health System, Dr. Victor Dzau, recruited change-oriented peers to populate the task force. He was attracted to join the effort not only because of the hospital’s role as a major employer, but also because of the growing recognition in the public health field of “the social determinants of health”— the concept that weak health and social outcomes are directly related to levels of economic inequality present in a society. Addressing youth employment by connecting young people to living-wage jobs offered Durham a lever to narrow income inequality and raise health outcomes.

During 18 months of research and planning, the Task Force was staffed by MDC and supported by a Policy Working Group composed of senior executives from each of the public partners and additional representatives from the nonprofit, academic, and employment sectors to provide operational expertise and perspective to the Task Force. Both groups wrestled with how to gather data, track progress, and organize and align resources—existing and new—most effectively. At the end of the design phase, Made in Durham Task Force members incorporated a nonprofit organization with a small staff to serve as a backbone organization and convener for the partners. Members of the Policy Working Group continue to advise, and a youth network has been carefully recruited to reflect the diversity of Durham’s youth population. This network includes young people in high school, college, and alternative education programs. Two representatives will be voting members of Made in Durham’s board, and the group is planning youth-led action research projects for the coming year.

Many Task Force members have transitioned to board service, thus maintaining a leadership group composed of top business CEOs; education and public sector leaders, including the Superintendent of Durham Public Schools, President of Durham Technical Community College, Chancellor of North Carolina Central University, the Durham City Manager and Durham County Manager; and community advocates. This board is distinctive in that it is employer-led, and every member— private, public and nonprofit—is a CEO or the highest ranking member of their organization, able to make decisions and commit resources. The board’s primary objective is to foster alignment between the talent development system (education and workforce) and major employers in growth sectors of the economy. In the near term, their task is to support frontline education and workforce institutions—Durham Public Schools, Durham Technical Community College, North Carolina Central University and the Workforce Development Board—as they construct career pathways that lead to post-secondary credentials and good jobs. (The first pathway, in health and life sciences, will serve as a prototype for subsequent ones.) This year, Made in Durham partners also supported the City’s Youth Works Internship program with additional recruitment efforts for summer jobs, an important step in marshaling private sector leadership to provide substantive work-based learning for youth in sectors that are driving the Durham economy. In the longer term, the role of Made in Durham board, staff, and partners is to help shift the culture so that employers see youth investment as a part of doing business—and doing smart business, not just charitable business—in the Research Triangle.

This post includes contributions from MDC’s Abby Parcell, David Dodson, and Richard Hart.

We blogged recently about Southern job quality and the consequences of undervaluing low-wage work: “If we focus only on career pathways into ‘good jobs,’ then we ignore the concrete and realistic steps that could be taken to improve the quality of all jobs.”

Microsoft announced yesterday that the corporation is requiring contractors to provide employees with paid sick and leave time. The New York Times points out that the creation of good jobs often comes along with the creation of other jobs that don’t pay well and don’t provide benefits:

The situation is particularly acute in the tech industry, where average full-time employees earn more than $115,000 a year, along with generous benefits like child care, gourmet cafeterias and luxury shuttle rides to work. Many of the contracted service workers — who take care of the children, cook the food or drive the shuttles — earn near poverty-level wages and often do not receive basic benefits like sick leave.

In Santa Clara County, in the heart of Silicon Valley, the median hourly wage for software developers is $64 an hour, and from $11 to $14 for groundskeepers, janitors and security guards, according to Working Partnerships U.S.A., a local labor policy advocacy group. Eighty-eight percent of computer jobs provide paid sick days, compared with 41 percent of building and grounds-cleaning jobs. Three to 4 percent of tech employees are black or Latino, and about 75 percent of janitorial and maintenance workers are.

Microsoft recognizes that improving the quality of the jobs its contractors provide is not only good for the economy as a whole; it’s good for their business. As the article notes, large employers are changing practices to fill the void left by state and national policy gridlock. (more…)

“It’s like the Fourth of July, except in March.” That’s how MDCer and Savannah, Georgia, native Leslie Howell described her hometown’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Growing up in Savannah, Leslie remembers having a school holiday and arriving at the parade route early to get a good spot to see high school marching bands and—her favorite—the prancing Clydesdales. Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is the third-largest in the world; there are more than 300,000 people expected to come out for this year’s festivities. (The parade has been held annually—with a few exceptions—since the early 1800s, the parade beginnings coinciding with an influx of Irish immigrants.)

But not everyone gets to take the day off for the parade. Paid time off is just one of the benefits that make up a good job–one that pays enough to cover basic living expenses and is stable enough for saving and wealth building. Neither Babs nor I want to rain on your parade, but you could use more good jobs, Savannah (like most of the South.)

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About MDC

MDC, a nonprofit based in Durham, N.C., began publishing State of the South reports in 1996 to further its mission of helping communities, organizations, and leaders close the gaps that separate people from opportunity. Founded in 1967 to help North Carolina make the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy and from a segregated to an integrated workforce, MDC now focuses on increasing educational attainment, connecting people to work that pays, and helping them get the resources they need to become successful. To accomplish that, MDC publishes research that highlights the importance of removing inequities; organizes leaders community-wide to create a will for change; develops programs that strengthen the workforce and foster economic development; and incubates those programs so they can be made sustainable and replicated at scale.